Another Fremont solar company meltdown

Hot off the presses, here’s Bay Area News Group story by staff writer George Avalos about the the problems experienced by GreenVolts, a Fremont solar company (cough, Solyndra, cough) …

FREMONT — GreenVolts has suspended all manufacturing, marketing and sales operations, effective immediately, dealing a fresh blow to the Bay Area solar industry.

Roughly three-quarters of the solar company’s staff — 60 out of 80 employees — has been dismissed in the shutdown. The startup had been developing photo voltaic systems using a new kind of technology to concentrate sunlight onto solar cells.

“A sudden, and unexpected, change in direction from a major strategic investor has affected GreenVolts’s access to funding,” the company said in a statement posted on its Web site.

Fremont-based GreenVolts said the turn of events was “surprising” especially given recent positive comments and support from customers and partners of GreenVolts.

“The impact was at the last minute and so severe that GreenVolts cannot continue normal operation,” the company said.

The employees that are left are providing customer support and are seeking to find buyers of the company’s system.

Last year, Fremont-based Solyndra abruptly ceased operations and went bankrupt in a high-profile implosion that idled 1,100 workers.